Goodnews Christian Ministry

The Three "Secrets" of Fatima

"Understand this: the vision shows the time of
the End."
Daniel 8:17

_____________

The three "secrets" that revolve around the spectacular events
at Fatima are arguably among the most stunning Christian prophecies ever
delivered outside of scripture. Emanating from a church noted for its resistance
to modern prophecy, the improbability of Fatima's official acceptance is
a certain testament to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in it's 88-year
unveiling.

For this reason, the 'how' of the Roman acceptance of the Fatima visions
is as intriguing as the substance of the prophecies themselves.

The Holy Spirit is always the author of true prophecy. Fatima is no
exception. The visions were given to three young peasant children at Fatima
in Portugal, eight-year old Lucia Santos and her two cousins, Francisco
and Jacinta Marto by "a beautiful lady" understood to be Mary,
the mother of Jesus. In many of her appearances at Fatima, Mary was accompanied
by an angel. Yet, we must remember that Mary was not the source of the
appearances, or the author of the prophecies she delivered. Mary was a
messenger, bringing the words of the Holy Spirit.

Had Mary appeared to three Protestant children under similar circumstances,
we probably would not be aware of it today. Even the newspaper accounts
from 1917 would have faded by now into historic oblivion. Prophecy just
doesn't come by way of Mary to the Protestant community.

The situation in Catholicism is just the opposite. Controlling even
the most minute elements of theology, the Roman church has insulated itself
from prophecy almost completely. By the very nature of this detachment,
Mary is essential to almost every vision. It is hard to conceive of any
other portal through which God would be able to speak to Vatican ears.

In order to reach the mother church and her Eastern Orthodox sister
with their combined one billion members, the Holy Spirit sent the only
messenger that would be listened to by this enormous community of Christians.

But, even that wasn't enough to circumvent heirarchical intransigence.
To fully bridge that barrier, God sent His messages wrapped in the package
of a marvelous "show" complete with dancing suns and apparitions
witnessed by countless people and reporters, but little in terms of portentious
messages. At least there was no perception of any powerful or orthodoxy-threatening
message. Though spectacular and unexplainable, it all seemed theologically
safe.

Consequently, after 13 years (the number 13 is the fundamental numerology
of the Fatima visions) the Vatican in 1930 decreed the appearances at Fatima
to be "worthy of belief" by the Catholic community.

That pronouncement locked the church in.

It was not until then that God made public the fact that Fatima contained
a series of extraordinary "messages".

Sometime after 1935, Lucia stunned Vatican authorities with word of
the existance of "three secrets of heaven" Mary had entrusted
to her with the caution she reveal nothing about them to anyone until Mary
had given her the go ahead. By the time this permission came, Lucia was
a nun in a Portugese convent.

She wrote the secrets down some time after 1935 and gave them to her
Portugese bishop who forwarded them to Rome in 1942. The existance of these
three secrets and all the prophecies contained in them caught the Vatican
by surprise. They had already decreed Fatima worthy of belief, and now,
suddenly, they had three uncontrollable prophecies on their hands, given
by Mary, herself, and written by Lucia in her own handwriting. Not only
that, but Lucia had placed the third of these secrets in a sealed envelope
with instructions that it could not be opened until at least 1960.

It was like giving the church a theological time-bomb.

With World War II raging at the time, and world conditions closely immitating
the tenor of Fatima's known "secrets", the Vatican made the first
two visions public in 1942. Yet because of world conditions, few outside
Vatican circles were aware of them. It was not until the war ended that
knowledge of the prophecies of Fatima became known to a full worldwide
audience who immediately and fervently embraced the messages received.

From 1945 on, speculation over the contents of the third secret became
a universal topic of conversation throughout the religious coummunity.
It was an anticipation that refused to fade away. Instead, popular interest
grew in intensity year after year, especially after 1960 came and went
and no word of this last secret was forthcoming from Vatican sources. That
did not seem to bode well.

We have learned later, that when Pope John XXIII opened the third secret
in 1960 and read it, he gasped and fainted. The secret was immediately
returned to the Vatican vault. Pope Paul, after succeeding Pope John XXIII
similarly read and returned the secret to seclusion. The next Pope lived
only 30 days. There is no indication he ever saw the document. He was succeeded
by Pope John Paul II whose intimate relationship with the secret finally
led to its partial disclosure late in his life.

In the first "secret", the children were shown a vision of
hell.

The second "secret" addressed, not just World War I &
II, but the rise of Russia as well. It contained several prophecies and
a mandate to consecrate Russia to Christ through Mary. This mandate was
accompanied by a warning that failure to carry out the consecration would
result in harrowing consequences for the world.

Even so, the consecraton was not performed until 1984, forty-two years
after the church received instructions to do so, and three years after
Pope John Paul II was nearly assassinated in Vatican Square on May 13th,
1981 (the day of the anniversary of Fatima) by a gunman said to be a Soviet
operative obsessed with the Fatima prophecy.

That assassination attempt was the incontrovertible evidence Pope John
Paul II needed to finally convince himself that he and the Vatican could
no longer ignore the Fatima messages or their instructions. While still
in his hospital bed recovering from his wounds, he instructed his secretary
to bring him every piece of informaton the church had assembled concerning
the visions.

Joining forces with the Russian Orthodox church in 1982, that consecration
was carried out in 1984. The third secret, however, was not made public
at that time. It was not until 16 years later that even an inkling of its
ominous contents were finally revealed:

The "bishop clothed in white," who is the pope, "makes
his way with great effort toward the cross amid the corpses of those who
were martyred. He, too, falls to the ground, apparently dead, under a burst
of gunfire."

The third "secret" is still secret for the most part. Only
these parts of two sentences were publicly revealed on May 13th of 2000
in order to pacify an enormous clamor for the secret's release by the people
of the church during the late 90's fearful of the prophecy's relationship
to the portents of the approaching "Y2K", the advent of the Third
Millenium (the third "day") of Christ on earth.

Despite promises for a full unveiling, the rest of the messages contained
in this third "secret" have been kept hidden by the Pope for
the last five years, awaiting the preparation of an appropriate "commentary"
the church has intended to write in order to explain the secret's apocalyptic
contents by the Vatican Office of Information under the direction of Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI).

Intriguing Vatican comments about these other contents include a statement
that they contain a series of prophecies extending over a period of time,
and a comment that revelation of the contents might encourage the communists
who are bent on destroying the Christian Church.

The focus of the Fatima prophecies is centered on Russia. At least the
parts we have been given access to seem to be centered there. The Holy
Spirit did not allow Lucia to reveal the secrets until World War II was
virtually inevitable, so that seems not to have been the central feature
of the visions. World War I, though only 20 years distant, was ancient
history at the time of Lucia's revelation. That leaves Russia, the only
antagonistic nation actually named in any of Fatima's prophecies, as the
one part of the vision we can be certain truly WAS prophecy.

Amid all the world-wide mayhem raging in 1942, Russia was the pivotal
nation about to rise up to be the first committed Anti-christ empire (superpower)
on earth since the pagan Roman Empire was destroyed by the Church in the
4th century. In terms of Christ, Russia visa vie the Soviet Union was about
to become a huge event ­ a true image of the the great red dragon ­
the terrible fulfillment of the last-day visions of Daniel and the Book
of Revelation.

Therein lies the true focus of Fatima: the portent of the return of
the Beast with the mortal wound. It is this healing that ties Fatima to
Bible prophecy:

1 saw that the beast was like a leopard, with paws like a bear and a
mouth like a lion; the dragon had handed over to it his own power and his
throne and his worldwide authority ·I saw that one of its heads
seemed to have had a fatal wound but that this deadly injury had healed
and, after that, the whole world had marvelled and followed the beast.
They prostrated themselves in front of the dragon because he had given
the beast his authority; and they prostrated themselves in front of the
beast, saying, 'Who can compare with the beast? How could anybody defeat
him?' ·For forty-two ' months the beast was allowed to mouth its
boasts and blasphemies and to do l whatever it wanted; ·and it mouthed
its blasphemies against God, against his name, his heavenly Tent and all
those who are sheltered there. ·It was allowed to make war against
the saints and conquer them, and given power over every race people, language
and nation; ·and all people of the world will worship it, that is,
everybody whose name has not been written down since the foundation of
the world in the book of life of the sacrificial Lamb. ·If anyone
has ears to hear, let him listen: Captivity for those who are destined
for captivity; the sword for those who are to die by the sword. This is
why the saints must have constancy and faith." (Rev. 13:2-10).

Like all prophecy, the truth of the Fatima messages is completely dependent
on biblical correlation.

Because that correlation exists, we can conclude that the Fatima prophecy
is the official notification by the Holy Spirit to the Christian Church
heirarchy of the advent of the Tribulation. It is the official confirmation
from heaven that the world has entered its 11th hour.

"Does the trumpet sound in the city without the populace becoming
alarmed? Does misfortune come to a city if God has not sent it? No more
does the Lord God do anything without revealing his plans to his servants
the prophets." (Amos 3:6-7).

The very fact that the first "secret" was a vision of hell
seems to guarantee this assessment. The date further defines it as well.
The 13th. Every Fatima vision (all the appearances and dancing suns and
prophecies and secret revelations) occurred on the 13th day of each month.
Fatima was acknowledged to be "worthy of belief" exactly 13 years
after the visions began. Pope John Paul II was shot on May 13th, 1981,
and Russia was consecrated to Christ on the day of Fatima, May 13th, 1984.
A small part of the third secret of Fatima was made public on May 13th,
2000.

The number13 is numerology for the spectre of evil. It is a number surrounded
by fear. So universal is this anxiety that there is even a word that addresses
it: 'triskaidekaphobia'. Many buildings have been constructed without a
13th floor. Room's numbered 13 have sometimes been omitted. Even Hollywood
has added its own macabre dimension to the number. Use of this number as
a date associated with prophecy, therefore, seems to define the subject
of the message. In this case, the official announcement of the coming Wrath,
the ultimate spectre of evil on earth.

Would God use recognizable social numerology in this manner? As the
subject of a message? Look at 9-11. The numerology of 911 has recently
been added to the lexicon of our language to define a "dire emergency".
There seems little doubt that a divine correlation exists between the Eastern
world's attack on New York and the date of that attack in 2001. It is the
kind of significance that tells us we need to pay particular attention
to this event ­ that there is more to it than first meets the eye.
There is message here. And it comes from God.

Fatima is message from God. It talks to us in our own language so that
we better understand it.

Verifying the visions of Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea, Joel,
Zechariah and John, the secrets of Fatima describe the return of hell to
earth. Satan has been released from his prison in the Abyss, and he has
come to mobilize the world for war (Rev. 20:7-9). That is the meaning of
the first two secrets.

While the first secret images hell itself, the second defines the initial
manifestations of these world-war mobilizations and warns of the coming
of the Antichrist and his intent to declare war on the Church. It sets
forth conditions and provisions that lead into the third secret, such as
intense prayer for the conversion of Russia and the need for the world's
people to repent and return to a faith they have abandoned. Included also
is the promise of a "sign," an "unknown
light" in the night sky that heralds the mayhem to come.

The third prophecy seems to define a future event ­ the assassination
of the Pope and the death of an enormous number of Christian martyrs, ostensibly
on Vatican grounds. Bible prophecy supports this supposition. Daniel alludes
to it, "And after the sixty-two weeks an anointed one will be cut
off..." (Dan. 9:26). This follows the template of the Jewish high
priest, Onias, murdered by the forces of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the prototype
of the Beast whose erection of the desolating sacrilege in the Jewish temple
desecrated it's holy altar, putting a stop to sacrifice and oblation, and
set the format for Jesus' prophecy of the last days (Mat. 24:15-16; 2 Mac.
4:34).

Pope Paul II, however, saw all this in the past tense, as a portent
of his own attempted assassination, viewing the martyrs mentioned as those
now or previously under persecution throughout the communist-dominated
countries of the 20th century world.

Since all the works of God go in pairs by opposites, his assessment
seems also to be correct. The attempted assassination forced the church
to finally address the prophecy in earnest. They consecrated Russia to
Christ through Mary as ordered with immediate results so spectacular it
stunned the world community.

Yet the sudden conversion of Russia has not moved the world community
to return to Jesus and embrace Him as they had done earlier in the days
of Constantine. Therefore, Fatima's central warning has not yet been heeded.

That leaves us to ponder the critical elements of the third prophecy.
We don't need Fatima to tell us what those elements are. The Bible has
already defined them with disturbing precision. We can see those revelations
in the Book of Joel and in the words of the 74th Psalm. Zchariah, Daniel,
Ezekiel, Jeremiah and many others have cataloged them in vision after vision.

And now, the official notification promised has been delivered to Church
headquarters.

Fatima is the tolling of the last hour on the Clock of God warning those
who have yet failed to do so to drop whatever it is they are now doing
and seek the safety of the cross. The urgency of this call should now be
obvious to everyone. There is no other escape. And the time is short.

All information regarding this prophecy, along with copies of the original
documents written by Lucia de los Santos can be found at this site.

The third secret in full:

"After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left
of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in
his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they
would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour
that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the
earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance,
Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something
similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it'
a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'.
Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain,
at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a
cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through
a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted
with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on
his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot
of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets
and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the
other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people
of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there
were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they
gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that
were making their way to God."